Blond Fold wireless charger checks all the boxes of great design and sustainability

Phone makers are cutting down on chargers in boxes, but third-party chargers are rising in number instead. Blond, fortunately, has a great idea on how to fix that problem as well.

One of the biggest sources of electronic waste in garbage dumps has been discovered to be smartphone chargers. According to the European Commission, about 11,000 tonnes or 11 million kg of unused or discarded chargers pile up every year. Figures and studies like these are often cited as reasons for imposing a common charging standard or removing charging bricks from phone packaging. That only addresses one part of the problem, though, because chargers are still being made and sold en masse anyway. The other part of the solution is to make the chargers themselves long-lasting and sustainable, which is what this innovative multi-functional wireless charging concept is trying to propose.

Designer: Blond

The Fold, no relation to Samsung’s foldable phones, immediately strikes one as a handsome piece of tech. Blending minimalism and transparency, the foldable wireless charger makes no qualms about its geeky nature. In fact, it invites people to peer into its very soul, and some might even have to dig deep into it in order to repair the accessory over time.

Creative design studio Blond’s concept for this wireless charger is notable in more ways than one. More than just portable, thanks to its foldable design, the charger can be used in multiple ways as well. For example, it can juice up three devices all at once, but it can also act as a smartphone stand when folded in a certain way.

Its most ambitious feature, however, is its longevity. Unlike most consumer electronics, the Fold is designed to be easy to open up and replace broken parts, at least for someone who is used to doing repairs on their own. In theory, the materials used will also be sustainable or responsibly sourced, possibly from recycled products even. That’s not always possible with electronics, of course, so the option of repairing and sending back components for recycling helps both the owner and the environment in the long run.

The Fold’s sustainability extends to the concept of its packaging. Where most products require two layers, with the packaging itself and then the shipping box, Blond envisioned a single recycled and recyclable packaging that meets both needs. This eliminates wasted materials while still leaving room for some creative innovation inside the box, like a space for broken or suspended components for shipping back to the manufacturer for repairs or recycling.

The post Blond Fold wireless charger checks all the boxes of great design and sustainability first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Paper Shredder Just Got A Welcomed Re-Design

Paper shredders have unfortunately found themselves falling into the category of ‘over-designed’ and ‘unnecessarily complicated’ products, with their often visually-complicated aesthetics jarring with their surroundings and their functionality getting lost beneath the unwanted functions. This is the exact issue that the team at Blond Design Studio identified, and their answer to the problem is Aperture.

Aperture is an intriguing product, where functionality and simplicity have been at the forefront of the design. Just two buttons are present on the device, these being auto and reverse, making operation straightforward and hassle-free. A viewing window is absent from the clean, uninterrupted form, as this has instead been replaced with a viewing hole on the top of the device, meaning that the user does not have to awkwardly bend down to check the paper contents.

The primary drive behind the fuss-free aesthetic was to create a product which can be integrated into a range of interior styles and sceneries… without standing out like a sore thumb!

Designer: Blond Design Studio

During their research they noticed that most paper shredders had a power cable which exits from the top of the product, as this is where the components are located. However, this cable position causes complications in terms of positioning, not to mention; it is aesthetically unpleasant. Due to this, they created a cable channel on the inside of the casing and relocated the power cable to the bottom of the product.

In additional to the white CMF direction, supplementary colour pallets have been inspired by the woods used to make paper.

Should grooming products be ergonomic? Or Sleek?

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Blond’s Extrusion electric shaver may be the very opposite of ergonomic, but it does follow a design movement that we’ve subconsciously made peace with. Phones today have made a rather successful transition from being the curvy, hand-friendly gadgets that Nokia made in the 90s and 00s, to being slabs that have so little design in them, they’re physically and even characteristically two dimensional. However, the human perception has shifted too, and any product that has mass and curves is now perceived as un-sleek and undesirable.

The Extrusion Shaver tries to use that perception to its favor by ditching the design language set by current shavers and their over-stylized-in-the-name-of-ergonomic-design forms for something that’s sleek, and easy on the eyes. The Extrusion Shaver doesn’t look uncomfortable to hold… but it does look clean (which goes hand-in-hand with what it does to your face), and it definitely looks sophisticated (another hand-in-hand characteristic trait). It looks simple but still retains its high-end image rather wonderfully, with its premium looking matte metal finish and its wireless charging dock… but more importantly, it also looks refreshingly different!

Designer: Blond Design Studio

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